Note 41 — THE BALLAD

[8] This ballad is a good specimen of the Robin Hood Cycle, and is remarkable for its many proverbial and alliterative phrases. A few lines have been lost between stanzas 2 and 3. Gisborne is a "market-town in the West Riding of the County of York, on the borders of Lancashire." For the probable tune of the ballad, see Chappell's 'Popular Music of the Olden Time,' ii. 397. [9] Woods, groves.--This touch of description at the outset is common in our old ballads, as well as in the mediæval German popular lyric, and may perhaps spring from the old "summer-lays" and chorus of pagan times. [10] Beautiful; German, schön. [11] Coppices or openings in a wood. [12] In some glossaries the woodpecker, but here of course a song-bird,--perhaps, as Chappell suggests, the woodlark. [13] A, on; lyne, lime or linden. [14] Sturdy, brave. [15] Robin now tells of a dream in which "they" (=the two "wight yeomen," who are Guy and, as Professor Child suggests, the Sheriff of Nottingham) maltreat him; and he thus foresees trouble "from two quarters." [16] Revenged. [17] Dreams. [18] Tautological phrase,--"prepare and make ready." [19] Murder, destruction. [20] Horse's hide. [21] Strange. [22] Paths. [23] Green valley between woods. [24] Perhaps the yew-bow. [25] Made ready. [26] "Woe be to thee." Worth is the old subjunctive present of an exact English equivalent to the modern German werden. [27] Note these alliterative phrases. Boote, remedy. [28] As Percy noted, this "quoth the sheriffe," was probably added by some explainer. The reader, however, must remember the license of slurring or contracting the syllables of a word, as well as the opposite freedom of expansion. Thus in the second line of stanza 7, man's is to be pronounced man-ës. [29] I have lost my way. [30] At some unappointed time,--by chance. [31] Stunted shrubs. [32] Apart. [33] "Prickes seem to have been the long-range targets, butts the near."--Furnivall. [34] Garlande, perhaps "the ring within which the prick was set"; and the pricke-wande perhaps a pole or stick. The terms are not easy to understand clearly. [35] Reckless, careless. [36] Maiden. [37] Dangerous, or perhaps simply backward, backhanded. [38] On is frequently used for of. [39] Hillock. [40] Voice. [41] Rusty